Hacker News Reader

Comment by jcadam | Hacker News Reader

So that time back in my Army days when I collapsed from dehydration, I'm guessing the solution that was forced on me -- sit on this rock and chug two full canteens of plain water (no salt/sugar/electrolytes) -- was probably not the best idea?

View on HN

> I'm guessing the solution that was forced on me [...] was probably not the best idea?

Indeed, it wasn't a solution!

Underrated reply for the chemistry pun.

As a physician we do occasionally see folks die from hyponatremia (low salt) from overly correcting dehydration with water. It’s a terrible tragedy.

Possibly, you're not dead so it worked. The better solution would have been ORS, and water. In the military and other physically demanding activities with a culture of water drinking, a concern can be hyponatremia.

Ah, I'm told I spent a good portion of the remainder of that day in a state of incoherence and delirium. I also slept for 12 hours... I'm able to code nowadays, so apparently I didn't fry my brain too much :)

Perhaps you fried your brain just right.

I recall being taught (public school system) roughly 20 years ago that "we used to think salt was good for countering dehydration if you were stranded in the desert, but now we know that plain water is better." This isn't necessarily false (water is likely better than pure salt), but I wonder if we threw the baby out with the bathwater at the time as far as salt was concerned.

> was probably not the best idea?

Plain water still works fine. It's just slower.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com